The Mortification of the Self: Erving Goffman’s Analysis of the Mental Hospital

Abstract

In this article I summarize the main points in the first two essays in Erving Goffman’s Asylums, published in 1961, which is based on his field work at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. in 1955–56. The first essay presents his concept of total institutions. The second focuses on the mortification of the self that one experiences during the pre-patient and patient phases. Although these essays reflect observations that were made some 60 years ago, his analysis of what happens to the mental patient in the hospital environment is still relevant, especially for seminary students whose CPE field work takes place in the mental hospital setting. This article also provides the basis for a follow-up article on William F. Lynch’s (1965) Images of Hope, which he wrote during his residence at St. Elizabeths Hospital in the early 1960s.